The invention relates to fixtures for a plurality of elongated tubular electric lamps having contact caps at both ends; for convenience such lamps will hereinafter be referred to as tubular lamps, or simply as lamps.
Such fixtures have in the past been known and in the broad sense consist of a long support carrying a series of tubular lamps for illuminating display windows, bookshelves, the insides of large pieces of furniture, and so on.
Known fixtures of this type usually consist of a flat insulating support carrying two spaced-apart flat conductor bars disposed side-by-side. On their sides, the conductor bars have projecting parts which are bent to receive and carry the ends of tubular lamps placed along a common axis parallel to the support. The conductor bars are connected to a current supply and their bent projecting parts serve both to carry the lamps and supply current to them.
These known fixtures have numerous disadvantages. Manufacture of the conductor bars with projecting lamp-carrying parts is relatively complicated as several cutting templates are required to obtain different spacings between lamps in order to modify the intensity of illumination. For example, if one desires to space the adjacent tubular lamps along the rail by 10 cm, the cutting and folding of the projecting parts will be different than for a spacing of, say, 5 cm. Moreover, cutting of the metal bars involves a waste of material, the part situated between two projections being lost; this is all the more important as the spacing between adjacent lamps increases. Furthermore, at least two operations of folding by 90.degree. are necessary after cutting, a first folding operation to bring the projecting part perpendicular to the conductor bar, and a second folding operation to bring the lamp-supporting projecting part perpendicular to the axis along which the lamps are mounted. After these three operations, it is still necessary to secure conductor bars on their support after verification that the distance between each pair of lamp holders corresponds to the length of the lamp. When the rail is installed, none of the parts under voltage, or the lamps themselves, are protected unless extra protective parts, such as a reflector, or a diffusing glass cover, are fitted. Also, when the rail is fitted in an angle in a piece of furniture, the lamps and lamp holders are close to walls of the piece of furniture; as a result, short-circuits may be caused by touching of a piece under voltage with the piece of furniture, and the piece of furniture may be undesirably heated by the lamp.
An object of the invention is to eliminate or palliate these drawbacks by providing a lamp fixture of simple construction and low cost, that can be easily fitted and can receive accessories (such as reflectors and diffusing glass covers) without a need for additional assembly parts, and in which the parts under voltage and the lamps are protected and cannot come into contact with elements on which the rail is fitted.
The invention accordingly provides, in a fixture for tubular lamps comprising two metal conducting bars mounted on an elongated support and lamp-holding conducting pieces projecting from the bars, the improvement wherein the support is an angle member having two flat flanges disposed perpendicular to one another and extending parallel to an axis of the angle member, said metal bars being carried by inner surfaces of said two flat flanges, said lamp-holding conducting pieces being L-shaped brackets fixed alternately in pairs and with selected spacings along one metal bar and the other, said brackets having upstanding parts protruding from and disposed transverse to the respective bars, and said upstanding parts of all the brackets having aligned portions which include means for holding lamps parallel to the axis of the angle support member.
In a preferred embodiment, the upstanding parts of the brackets each have means defining a socket opening for receiving an end cap of an end of a lamp and an indent for guiding said cap into the socket opening, the other part of each bracket being rivetted on one of said metal bars and the respective flange of the support. The two brackets of each pair are fixed on the two metal bars with a spacing corresponding to the length of the lamps, the spacing between adjacent brackets of different pairs being selected as a function of a desired lighting intensity.
The two perpendicular flanges of the angle support member may be connected by a flat central web forming an angle of 45.degree. with the two flanges and of substantially the same width as each flange. Self-adhesive bands are advantageously disposed on the external faces of the flanges, whereas the central web has regularly spaced screw holes.
The fixture according to the invention may be installed at any desired location in a piece of furniture or along a plane surface. When the fixture is fitted on a plane surface, for example by means of the self-adhesive band of one of its flanges, or by screws extending through the central web, the self-adhesive band or bands of the other flange or flanges, as the case may be, can be used to mount a reflector, a thin sheet of diffusing glass or a safety barrier. When the fixture is placed in the angle formed by two perpendicular walls, the two self-adhesive bands will be used to secure the assembly to the two walls. The flanges provide both electrical and thermal insulation between the walls and the parts under voltage and the lamps. In addition, the axis of the lamps is substantially centered over each conductor bar. That is, the lamp axis lies approximately in both longitudinal planes projected perpendicularly from the center lines of the bars. Thus the conductor bars also tend to intercept and reflect light and heat from the lamps.
Manufacture of the assembly is very simple, as the support, the self-adhesive bands, the metal bars and brackets are all commercially available. It thus suffices to assemble by rivetting. As the brackets and metal bars are rivetted on the support in a single operation, the distance between two brackets of a pair for holding one tubular lamp, and the distance between the adjacent brackets of two pairs, can be chosen at will .